Knife guard



Mar. 3. 1925.

F. L. FULLER KNIFE GUARD' Filed Dec. 6, 1923 AD/M . INVENTOR.

REM/fl. Elie) v A TORNEY.

' is a decided improvement over these.

Patented Mar. 3, 1925".

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK L. FULLER, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

KNIFE Guam).

Application filed December 6, 1923. Serial No. 678,845.

useful Improvements in Knife Guards, of-

which the following is a specification. This invention relates to improvements in a paring knife guard, the object of which is to provide a guard which is spaced from the cutting edge of the knife and firmly held in such spaced relation. The construction of the guard is such that the cutting edge of the knife is so located with respect to the guard as to enable one to use the knife for paring fruit or vegetable with the least amount of waste. knife is Worn the guard fits on the knife blade so that parings of the same thickness are cut away. lVith a guard of this character any small curvature in the blade of the knife does not affect the utility of the device and therefore the paring knife may be used until the same is nearly wornaway. The prior art discloses numerous forms of paring knife guards, some of which are adapted to be clamped along the cutting edge of the knife, but my improved guard In my invention I provide a tubular guard member which is formed of one piece of blanked stock, the stock out in such a way as to allow the material for the ears to project rearwardly from the rolled tubular portion. An advantage of this tubular portion is that the knife guard mayv be i made of thinner gauge metal and yet possesses the necessary strength and rigidity to prevent the same from becoming bent or forced out of shape, which would necessarily destroy the utility of the device. Another advantage of having this tubular guard member extend the full length of the device is in creating a spring tension on the cars so that the attachment may be firmly clamped upon the knife blade. The spring is distributed throughout the entire length of the tubular portion.

To sharpen the knife, it is necessary to merely slip the guard off at which time the knife edge may be sharpened in the usual way. As the guard is replaced on the knife blade it will assume the position as before, no final adjustments being necessary,

No matter how much the.

In the drawings: V

Fig. 1-is a perspectiveview of the knife with my guard attached thereto.

Fig. 2, is asection on the line 2*2 of.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a detail showing therblank of which the guard is made.

A knife blade a is provided with a sharpened cutting edge 7), and a handle 0. This is the ordinary construction of the paring knife most generally used for vegetable paring.

My improved guard is formed first by blanking the same from flat stock, as shown in Fig, 4. At both ends of the blank are a pair ofears (Z and d. The blank is rolled so as to form a tubular member designated a,

- and the cars 03 and at extending to the rear.

The guard is formedof spring metal and as the guard is slipped on the knife blade the ears d and 03 will grip the blade and pre ventordinary displacement of the same.

- At each end of theguard there is provided an inwardly extending lip g which extends approximately at right angles to the longi' tudinal axis of the tubular portion. The lower edge of said lip is beveled as at h and the knife blade is wedged between the beveled edge of said lip and the bottom ears (1.

In Fig. 2, I have shown by the dotted lines designated {13, the normal position of the upturned edges oof the tubular member when the same is removed from the blade. As the ears d and d are forced onto the knife blade, the cars will be forced apart and the edges is bent and runs parallel with the upper ear d. This forms a shoulder is which acts as a stop for the knife blade. The lip g is bent out from this offset portion of the ear (1 and the inclined surface it together with the rest of the ear d forms a guide for guiding the knife blade as the same is wedged between the lip and ear until the cutting edge of the knife abuts the shoulder or stop is.

In referring to Fi 2 it will be seen that the lower portion of the tubular guard is flattened as at 10 for a distance of approximately .07 of an inch; as a result, aslight variation in the position of the cutting edge of the knife blade will not affect the thickness of the paring as the distance between the cutting edge and the guard remains constant within this limit. As the knife blade is sharpened and worn, it does not retain with a flattened portion, and a pair of ears bent out therefrom, said ears adapted to grip the knife blade, one of said ears being provided with a shoulder to properly locatethe cutting edge of said blade with respect to the flattened portion of said guard.

2.;An attachment for a paring knife, comprising a tubular guard member provided with a flattened portion and a pair of ears integrally formed with said tubular portion, i

said ears being offset and extended rearwardly of said tubular portion and adapted to grip the knife blade, the offset portion forming a shoulder to provide a stop for the knife blade to properly locate the flattened portion of. said guard with respect to said cutting edge of said knife blade.

3. An attachment for a paring knife, comprising a tubular guard member provided with rearwardly extending ears and a flattened underside portion, said ears being offset and adapted to grip a knife blade, said offset ears forming a shoulder to act as a stop for the knife blade to properly locate the tubular guard with respect to the cutting edge of said knife blade, and lips bent at right angles to the longitudinal axis of said tubular guard to act as spacers between the flattened underside portion of said guard and blade as the guard is slipped on the knife toproperly space the tubular guard from the cutting edge of the knife blade.

4. An attachment for a parin knife, comprising a tubular guard member provided with rearwardly extending ears and a flattened portion, said ears being offset to form a shoulder and adapted to grip the knife blade, the edge of said knife blade adapted to abut the shoulder formed by said offset ears to properly locate the blade with respect to the flattened portion of said guard, and lips carried by said guard member and bent inwardly from said offset portion at substantially right angles to the longitudiv nal axis of the guard member, said lips having an inclined edge, the knife blade adapted to be wedged between said inclined edges of the lips and the lower ears carried by said tubular guardfor spacing the guard from said cutting edge.

5. An attachment for a paring knife, comprising a tubular guard provided with a flat tened underside and having a pair of ears bent out therefrom, said ears adapted to grip the knife blade to clamp the guard thereto, one of said ears being provided with a shoulder to locate the cutting edge of said knife blade near said flattened portion of the guard, and means for spacing the said cutting edge a constant distance from the flattened underside portion of the guard member within predetermined limits H between and the entire'tubular guard eX-,

erting a spring tension on the knife blade in place,

7. An attachment for a paring knife, com prising a split tubular spring guard p'rosaid ears to clamp vided with projecting earsrthe said spring guard tending to force the ears together,

the said ears adapted to be spread when a knife blade is inserted therebetweemthereby causing'the split tubular spring guard to expand, the inherent spring tension of the entire length of said guard resisting said expanding action to clamp the knife blade firmly between the ears.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

FRANK L. FULLER. 

